The Nonsense Papers: BP oil spill; The Search For Answers
BY: James William Astrada
As we venture into the question of how the great oil spill in the southern United States affected the country, individuals, and animals in general, we must investigate on how it transpired, who was involved and why it is taking so long to solve the problem. BP is well known for its power in both energy and petroleum. It is the third largest energy company in the world and the fourth largest company in the world in general due to the revenue it collects. (1/6 in gas and oil) Does this oil giant have any reason to slow down progress in cleaning up the efforts of their mistake? Why is the U.S government not able to work coherently to fix the problem that seems to drag on and on? Is there a conspiracy here that the two make be working hand in hand to show little effort or interest in helping out the wildlife that has suffered and the human ecosystem as well?
Every company has its share of problems, however, BP seems to have more problems than others. Many different events have transpired making BP one of the worst companies considering a substandard safety protocol. Examples like being the one of the top ten worst companies considering human rights violations and environmental violations in both 2001, and 2005. The EPA(Environmental Protection Agency) itself has collected many fines like in 1991; $1.7 million for illegal burning of polluted gases, and in 2005 $10 million for mismanagement of its facilities. What reason would BP have for being so careless in managing their facilitates and allowing for funds to be wasted on something that should be addressed as a normal standard? Do the EPA and BP have some sort of money making strategy that would profit both parties? Certainly with these grand mistakes, the right thing to do would be to question management in general and either hire new leadership or shut the company down due to the negative effect of the global ecosystem. Between its safety record of 1965-2010 totaling in about $137 million between violating the Clean Air Act, and OSHA violations, and the death of its own employees numbering 57, one wonders how the company still manages to stay on top without any signs of deterioration. There have been speculations as well on political manipulation dealing with propane prices, oil prices and certain contributions to campaigns with their personal interests. This of course must be investigated with the individual desire to search for answers.
The U.S. government seems as well to be misinformed when it comes to BP policy. There are four major points that we can speculate: firstly, BP itself has withheld information from the public about the spill form day one and it took 3 weeks for them to release the video of the oil leak. What reason would they have to do this? Were they trying to cover up a bigger disaster, or were they other elusive factors involved on the oil spill itself? Secondly, Crews themselves that have been designated to clean up the spill have become ill from the process, and for some reason are afraid to disclose why.
What exactly are the workers afraid of, has BP made any initial threats to them or their families? Thirdly, in spite of the miraculous achievements we have made as a nation and as a race like putting a man on the moon, constructing the Hoover Dam, the Panama Canal, the International Space Station (ISS) for some odd reason, the government is unable to make certain decisions to initiate a clean up effort without BP making the decisions. If BP doesn’t dictate what to do on the situation, then the government doesn’t seem to act. It seems to be in hibernation unable to make conscious decisions. Could there be some profit for deliberately waiting to alleviate the problem as the ecosystem is affected, fishing and commerce are affected, and people becoming ill from the spill itself? Finally, the government seems to join BP in denying the press full access to the oil spill. Failure to adhere to these new stipulations will result in jail time and a $40,000 fine.
What is the reason for this cooperation? Is BP controlling the government in terms of decision making for interests that could be compromised if the press was involved? What ever seems to be the case, something is unclear here about what exactly is taking place and why this event seems to be taking an ridiculous amount of time to resolve. The search for answers as it seems is far from over.
©James William Astrada 2011-2012